Stage of Life members will receive discounts on Lenovo's entire product line. This includes savings from 5% to 20% off the web price on a variety of top products such as ThinkPad and IdeaPad laptops, and IdeaCentre desktops.

Get special upgrades, offers, and other perks AND receive a 4% vacation reward on your next cruise or resort vacation!To Redeem: Visit our cruise deals website to look for cruise packages and call 1-866-634-6185 toll-free to get a vacation quote. Use coupon code STAGE OF LIFE

My thoughts on Newtown: Stop pointing fingers

I remember the feeling of my heart’s freefall into my stomach when my father said, "There was a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut.” I was suddenly ill and the feeling would not dissipate for days, if not weeks. As more details surfaced and the reality began to set in I grew increasingly unsettled. Seeing people laughing and going about normal life seemed insane, insensitive even. I recall feeling relatively foolish for being so distraught since I hadn't known any of the persons involved, but as I listened to the radio and the news I knew I was not alone. The actions of this one man had temporarily wounded, if not completely shattered, the hearts of a nation. The media circus would arrive in Newtown and soon after the shock began to wear off people wanted to point fingers because, as written in To Kill a Mockingbird, "It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason." People would say video games, gun laws, and mental health were at fault. In the following weeks it seemed the nation had regained the wild energy seen during the presidential election as, quite suddenly, everyone was a politician and everyone had a solution. This tragic event would ignite debates about gun laws and strike fear into the hearts of parents and students everywhere. Then the threats began, I watched in horror as one school after another went on lockdown after receiving violent threats. I can explain first hand the extreme sensation of fear one experiences when this happens, as my school spent two days that week on lockout after threats made on social media forums, similar to other schools in the tri-state area. Countless students in my school did not attend those two days of school. Some said that it was just a joke and others were not taking any chances. One thing everyone had in common was a general uneasiness those two days as we walked the halls cautiously and locked doors during classes. Then, as if the death of children in Newtown and the fear of children everywhere else wasn't enough people began to say that the whole event was a government conspiracy to pass gun laws. That’s utterly disgusting. How could anyone disrespect the families of those who died like that? Now, where do we go from here? My question is why did we wait so long? This is not the first massacre. What is the message from our people? “Kill everyone else, that's fine. Mess with our kids, now it's a problem”? In my opinion it’s necessary for all parties of government to adjoin and find a comparable solution because it is plausible to think that no one would want to see this happen again. I'm sick of the blame game; I just want a sense of safety again. The reality is there is no one thing that has created this epidemic and therefore there is no one solution but, something has to be done.

My name is Laura and I'm an intern at Stage of Life. I wanted to thank you for submitting your story to our "Where Do We Go After Newtown" writing contest, but more importunately, I want to congratulate you on being selected by our Editors as an essay finalist!

Hey! I'm a college intern here at Stage of Life, and I have some pretty exciting news. Channel One News, an educational program in partnership with CBS News that reaches nearly six million students in 7,000 high schools across the US, is pulling a news story together on the gun debate.

They contacted StageofLife.com looking for teens who are pro-gun rights and live in or near New York, preferably close to New York City, to be interviewed.

They saw your essay on gun rights. If you live in New York and would be interested in being interviewed for this national news story - let us know and we'll put you in touch with the reporter. If you're interested, please reach out to us at news@stageoflife.com.

Writing Contest Archive - Students

Writing Contests and Teen Trend Reports

Below you will find all of the monthly writing contests and teen trend reports from the last five years hosted by StageofLife.com. Our dedication to digital literacy efforts have reached over 1,000,000 students and teachers in the last half decade, received mention on TIME.com, and features in the news. Feel free to click through and read the top essay submissions from any given month. StageofLife.com is honored to be one of the most-visited writing contests for students in the world. We love working with you as we celebrate the journey as life-long readers and writers...

2010 Writing Contests

Why We Do This: Stories connect us. At StageofLife.com we believe that we can change the world . . . one story at a time. By sharing your experiences and thoughts on your stage of life, you can touch the lives of so many others. Just ask over 1,000,000 visitors we've welcomed since our little grassroots idea took off. Experience our digital literacy mission and share your story to change the world...

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Daily Word

euphony

(noun) pleasing sound

Writing Prompt Idea: Use this word in a blog or story post about your life here on StageofLife.com. View past Words of the Day to amp up your vocabulary, and don't forget to check out all of our free writing resources.

Enter Writing Contests - March 2015

Writing contest details: Weather is the great equalizer among us. We are all vulnerable to Mother Nature's fancy or fury. For our March 2015 writing contest, we want you to write a personal essay about the weather. For full writing prompt details and prizes for the essay winner...

Twitter Contests

How creative can you be in 140 characters? Enter the Stage of Life "Short Short Story" Writing Contest on Twitter. The best Tweet each month receives a gift card from our education sponsors.

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Stage of Life features over 100 special coupons and discounts, tailored by life stage, for our online community. From Applebee's to Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, explore the special offers we've lined up just for you...

Mobile StorytellingStage of Life launched one of the first mobile storytelling websites. Enter our writing contests, or read and share your stories anytime, from anywhere, using your smart phone.

Just visit www.StageofLife.com from the browser in your mobile phone. Let's write!

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Details: Did you know that over 500,000 students and teachers visit and use StageofLife.com each school year? As the world's largest collection of cross-generational stories, blog posts, and essays from teens to Baby Boomers (and older!), we're proud to provide free writing resources in an environment that encourages people of all ages to write...whether that's via our Twitter writing contests or international essay competitions.

We'd like to thank Applebee's, IHOP, Papa John's, and SpaWeek for providing the gift card prizes we use for our Twitter and writing contests each month. Please support these literacy and education-friendly partners...and submit your essays and Tweets for a chance to win a gift card!

My Life Rewards®: Don't forget to check out our list of secondary sponsors who provide our reading and writing community special coupons and discounts. Visit our free My Life Rewards® member benefit page for those special offers.

About Us

Stories connect us. At StageofLife.com we believe that we can change the world . . . one story at a time. By sharing your own experiences and thoughts on your stage of life, you can touch the lives of so many others. Just ask the over 1,000,000 visitors we've welcomed since our launch. Share your story and change the world. Pick a life stage above and start exploring the site.

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If you need a new laptop for college or school, compare the Stage of Life member pricing from Lenovo to get...

Support Literacy Development

As a free, education-focused writing initiative, UMB CardPartner is the proud sponsor of the Stage of Life Visa® Platinum Card. Apply for your VISA card to support the literacy, blogging and educational campaigns on StageofLife.com.

College Loan Options

As a national, educational, literacy initiative, StageofLife.com works closely teens and teachers...hundreds of thousands of them in fact. Because of this, we are in the fortunate position to bring our teen and college student users exciting benefits ranging from special offers and discounts for students to great rates on college loans and financing from the Smart Loan Option from Sallie Mae...

Resources

StageofLife.com is an education-based, grassroots, non-partisan, free blogging community with a mission support digital literacy by making the world a better place, one story, essay, and blog at a time. Stage of Life users (teens, college students, Millennials, Gen Y, Gen X, and Baby Boomers) can share and archive their life stories via their Stage of Life profile page. Specialized content includes literacy resources, free lesson plans, writing prompts for Language Arts teachers, monthly writing contests for high school students (and older generations), student blogging initiatives, blog directories, and financial literacy tools - including Life Rewards® - our free discount program for all Stage of Life users, readers and writers dedicated to providing printable coupons and coupon codes tailored towards each stage of life.